Privacy Guardian Editor's Review

Privacy has been and will always be a serious matter for all PC users out there. PC Tools Privacy Guardian is another piece of fine software, which can help you maintain your privacy while working on a PC.

The program has two key features: system cleaning and file shredding (disk bleaching). If you intend to clean your system, there are several sections you can clean, such as Windows settings, browser settings, third party software history information, custom items and bleach free space.

The program does a good job cleaning Windows temporary files like documents, 'search', and 'run' history, as well as the Recycle Bin, MS Office recent files, etc. You can also clean browsers' cache, cookies, and passwords. The good news is that the program detects the settings of all major browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape, Chrome and Opera.

The custom cleaning wizard allows you to create personalized files and folders, as well as registry keys and values lists for cleaning. If you want to clean other applications' cache, the program will show you a list of temporary files used by the applications installed on your system. You can select the items you want to erase there. The last option included in the program is the 'bleaching' of free space. You can choose which of the local drives needs 'bleaching'.

The program can run at Windows startup and all activity can be logged and saved in an HTML file format.

Pluses: The nice thing is that you can shred files from the Explorer context menu.

Drawbacks / flaws:

In conclusion: A very good and useful application. In all, it's a competitive product.

version reviewed: 4.5